Houstonian: Gaertner focuses on positive changes at SHSU

Reporter Stephen Payne writes in today's Houstonian that President Gaertner's recently-released biannual column deals with general information about the school and statistics about the student body:

The fall enrollment has increased for the past five consecutive....

SHSU is the 12th largest among the 36 four-year state universities in Texas in the third largest university system in the state. Gaertner said the minority enrollment at SHSU is slightly lower than the state average.

The total annual budget for the last academic year was $146 million. State appropriation makes up only 35.6 percent of the school's budget. Gaertner said the rest is raised through tuition, fees, grants, gifts and auxiliary activities. The percentage will drop to 34.3 this year, with the indications that state appropriations to higher education will continue to decrease in the future.

Gaertner added that in order to make up for the lost revenue, the university will take advantage of the recent tuition deregulation and pass the cost of operations on to the student consumer to remain as competitive as possible.